2023-06-12 17:40:38
A Briton was sentenced to 28 months in prison on Monday for lying to doctors and having an abortion after the legal deadline.
The 44-year-old woman, already a mother of three children before becoming pregnant in 2019, had received abortion pills during confinement in 2020, after lying about the duration of her pregnancy.
In England, Wales and Scotland, pregnant women can have an abortion up to the 24th week of pregnancy.
According to the information she had given, the abortion services she had contacted had estimated that she was seven weeks pregnant and had therefore sent her abortion pills.
In reality pregnant from 32 to 34 weeks, she had tried to abort in May 2020 before the help was called, because the woman was giving birth. The child was born during roll call but was pronounced dead 45 minutes later by doctors.
Prosecuted for “child destruction” (to have caused the death of an unborn child who could have been born alive), she had pleaded not guilty.
She later pleaded guilty to taking abortion medication.
She was sentenced to 28 months in prison, half of which was suspended.
“She lied (to abortion services) about the length of her pregnancy,” the prosecution said. “Taking medication was a planned and deliberate act.”
According to a law dating back to 1861, women who abort outside the framework authorized by law face life imprisonment.
“We are shocked and appalled by the decision to sentence a mother of three to 28 months in prison for using abortion pills to end her own pregnancy,” said the British Pregnancy Advisory Service – which runs clinics carrying out abortions – in a statement calling for a change in the law.
“Vulnerable women in the most incredibly difficult circumstances deserve more from our legal system,” it added.
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